Peyton Griffin's POV

"Peyton's boyfriend over here is your long-lost sibling."

There goes my last chance to try and protect Caleb.

I could already picture the look he was giving me, but I refused to see it. I have been given the look of disappointment before, and now is not the time to ponder about it.

I heard Joey chuckle darkly, "You are my son but a mistake all the same. You're the reason why Danny's mother wants nothing to do with me. You weren't supposed to be alive, I made sure of it when I sent that hit man to you and your adoptive parents, but like an itch you can't reach, you can't go away, now can you?"

The least he could do was be remorseful, but when people like Joey remove the blinds that they cast upon your eyes, it's hard to even think of them being that.

I should have known that he wouldn't allow me to hold this secret over his head. He must have figured out that I never told his illegitimate child his identity.

Although I'm pretty sure I was not interested in destroying Caleb's self-esteem further. I helped him find himself, and I planned on lying to his face to endure he didn't lose himself, but I guess that plan is out the window.

"Did you know about this?"

Here comes the dreaded question that I would make any deal to not answer, but luck really had a thing for me.

I decided to look at him, and an expression filled with slight disgust greeted me. I felt tears coming to the surface of my eyes.

"I wanted to tell you, but I didn't want to upset the perfect balance..."

But he cut me off with annoyance, but I knew that as I looked at him, he was hurt by what I kept from him.

"For how long were you going to pretend that I didn't want to know what happened to them?! For how long were you going to watch me cry about the fact of not knowing them?!"

For as long as it was needed for you to completely move on from your past.

A wince left me as he yelled, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I was the only person to blame for his anger.

"As fun as this is, I would like to get on with my life without further ado," Joey said, and I turned my attention back to him.

His gun was cocked towards my father, and I felt my gaze harden.

I have no idea what I or anyone in this room did that made him resort to drastic measures.

If it was up to me and my best friend was not held in his grasp, I would have gladly taken him on, but there was too much at stake at the moment.

Out of the blue, he threw Charlie at me, and I caught her, but the girl had the same weight as a small country, so we both fell to the ground.

Before I had time to regain myself, I heard the gunshots. My father let out a sharp breath and moved to fall out of the chair that he was in.

I was quick to untangle myself from Charlie and soften his fall. I cradled his head on my lap. I used one of my hands to press against the hole on his stomach while the other slapped him silly. Crimson coated my dress and the floor, but that was the least of my problems.

The voices in the background faded. The child in me clawed her way out and tried to make an appearance. My windpipe closed, and my vision became hazy. Blood rushed everywhere in my body except my heart which kept beating faster than a running Bunny.

"Peyton?" He called in a raspy voice, and I shushed him.

Even though I knew I wasn't particularly liked by him, I didn't want my last memory to be tainted by him insulting all the mistakes I made, but what left his lips stunned me to the extent that tears flowed down my face.

"I'm sorry. For everything. I'm to blame for all that has happened, from the moment you were born. I knew that people would stop at nothing to kill both you and your sister."

"But why? Why couldn't you love me as much as you loved Lola? Why did you always have to single me out and make me feel like an outcast?" I asked the question that burned the most in my subconscious.

"That's a lie, and you know it," Even on the verge of death, he still manages to scold me.

"I made a mistake which cost us a lot. A deal to be precise. I tried to play Joey at his own game, but he made the saying 'it takes two to tango' more meaningful than it already was. The day that you were born, there was another woman there who felt like the world had turned its back on her and to prove herself to her forsaken lover, she cut one of your mother's major veins, and that was when she made a choice for you to stay alive and carry out her legacy while she died." He coughed violently. Blood tainted his lips and dripped to his chin.

"I can't explain everything now, but promise me that you will listen to what your grandfather says. Protect your sister till your dying breath. She's all you have left."

He cupped my face and cleaned the tears on my face, but it was of no use. They still kept coming.

"I did what I did to protect you. As children, you always showed promising signs of being the tougher of you two, so I harden you so that when the time would be right, you would right my wrongs and set things straight." He brought his other hand and used it to cup my other cheek.

"You're a Griffin, we show no weakness, and we definitely are a stubborn lot. We make deals, not for selfish gain but to protect the ones we love. If it means we have to be the villain in someone's story, then so be it. We do what we do for the greater good, for the bigger picture, and most importantly, we do it because some things are better done the hard way.

Never forget that Peyton, you are my daughter and not once did I ever regret having you, but it's a shame that I never got to share the memories that I always wanted to."

I had so many things running through my mind.

What happened on the day of Lola and I's birth?

Who was the Nurse?

What were the mistakes that I had to make right?

What did he say to Lola to make her get married to that old man?

Like clockwork, my father managed to sit up slightly, plant a small kiss on my forehead and lay back down.

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His chest heaved up once again and moved no more.

It was then I realized I had a battle larger than anything I had ever seen, coming my way. Whether I liked it or not. My father's enemies were now mine and Lola's.

I stood up and allowed my face to take on the neutral expression that it usually did when I wanted no one to take note of my moment of weakness.

The room was dangerously quiet, everyone wondering what my next course of action was.

Only if they knew.

"Peyton?" Someone called out, but at this point, I felt my senses numb to the world.

I walked away from my father's corpse towards the door I used to enter this room.

A thought crossed my mind, and I knew that I still had some loose strings to tie up. And with that in mind, I turned my head sideways so I could look at the people in the room but still prevent them from finding a way to the gateway of my mind.

I knew from his outfit that my grandfather had finally decided to grace me with his presence but now was not the time to fully acknowledge it.

"If Jordan and Joey sit in the cells, I'll be more than willing to talk to you later."

I kept my voice cold and void of any emotion.

"You have yourself a deal. But remember Peyton; it was bound to happen sometime, just not in the best circumstances." I was at a loss by his show of compassion but nodded nothingness and walked out of the room.

-

People say that I deserve everything that happened to me. And sometimes I find what they say right. I mean, just take a look at my life.

My twin sister obviously hates me and walked out on me on my supposed wedding day. My stepfather is a sociopath; I have a perfect excuse for an ex who wants me back.

Let's not forget that both of my parents died because of the deals they had no control over, but I like to think of it as a problem that they knew next to little about.

Nothing adds up now because if my mom was bound to die that night, who wrote her journal?

Whose will was stated in that book? Or her letter that I am yet to read but don't want my other half to either?

I save the worst for the last, Caleb's bloody Parks. I don't know how he did it, but he wormed his way into my heart, set up a camp there in three months and showed me that maybe, just maybe I deserve the happiness I wanted for the people dear to my heart.

And what did I do in return?

That's right, I led him on and fell for him hard and fast, much worse when I finally put two and two together to figure out what happened to his birth parents. To add the cherry on top of the fucking sundae, he walked in on my marriage to my stepbrother.

Someone get me an award, I don't know what for, but I think I deserve one right now.

I buried my head into my pillow. The sound of footsteps had me narrowing my eyes at my room door.

The uninvited visitor closed the door after them and locked it.

"If this is Jordan, do me a favour and make my last moments quick, but if this is anyone else, then this is not my last moment."

The person walked closer to me, sat on the bed beside me and forced me to look at them.

Before I could operate my voice box, he slammed his lips onto mine. I could have sworn that he nibbled on my lower lip as he moved swiftly on mine and sucked all the breath out of my system.

"You were saying?" Caleb threw a cocky smirk at me and trailed his eyes down my figure in concern.

I was still trying to control my breathing as I looked at him. I would have thought that when we finally got ourselves alone, it would happen differently.

When Caleb saw that I was still not responding to his question, he sighed and got up.

He stuck his hand out to me, "As much as I want us to talk about what has happened today, you need a shower and a shoulder to cry on. As tempting as it is to join you, I think it's better you went in alone."

Still speechless, I took his hand, and he helped me up. I was about to walk numbly into the shower, but Caleb was two steps ahead as he quickly spun me around and zipped my dress down. It pooled at my feet, leaving me in the lingerie that came with it.

His gaze was unwavering as he looked me in the eye and thrust one of his shirts into my hands.

He cupped my cheek, "Try not to think about it while you're there, okay?" He pecked my lips and ushered me toward the bathroom.

I closed the door behind me with a small sigh and winced when I took in my reflection. My bruises were already healed, but they still had scars. My hair was matted with my father's blood, and don't even get me started on how the makeup looks on my face with the crying that I just did.

I entered the shower box and scrubbed myself clean, and came out. I towelled myself dry, wore his shirt and walked out.

The wedding dress that I left on the floor was nowhere to be seen while Caleb lay with his back down on my bed, his gaze trained on the bathroom door.

He smiled at me and motioned for me to come closer to him. I did just that, and he surprised me again. He grabbed onto my waist and made me straddle his waist while he leaned forward and rested on the headboard.

He brushed my hair to the side, "Now that you don't look like an extra from the set of suicide squad, we need to talk."

"You're right," I say with a shaky breath.

"I had a hunch that Joey had a secret that he didn't want anyone to know. Like every normal person, he would go to any cost to make sure that it remained a secret no matter what happened. The night of your concert here in the Bahamas, Danny and I paid him a visit in his office to blackmail him, to tell us who got Lola pregnant. After speaking gibberish, he said that it was my father. I knew it was a bloody lie, even when Lola confirmed it. I still knew it didn't add up, so I decided to leave it for now.

Before we left, I noticed that most of his files were in disarray, and a pair of names caught my attention.

'Death of the Parks' I didn't think much about why he would have a newspaper of their death and brushed it off as Joey being his usual creepy self.

That was until I got to Miami, and we got closer. You told me about your adoptive parents, and things started to add up. Your biological parents obviously didn't want you. That's why, they abandoned you in that orphanage home, hoping you would die. But as luck would have it, you got adopted, and they made sure that your time on earth was cut short, all thanks to your father, Joey freaking Torent." I finished the quick summary of what I knew concerning his parents.

"Now that we have that out of the way, can I ask why you didn't tell me?"

I turned my face away from him, not wanting to see his expression. "You made a lot of progress, and I wanted to be selfish and allow you not to go into a dark place again, even if I had to lie to your face to do it."

Caleb pushed my face back to face him with his thumb and index finger, "Dare I ask what this was about?"

"As you might have guessed or been told, my sister and I are the heiresses to the British empire. The thing is, I always thought that I was the one that killed my mom. I vowed that I would protect those I hold dear to my heart or die trying, make sure that they got happy in the long run even if it cost me my happiness.

I could go on about how today has been planned for a long time, but if I'm being honest, I have no idea how it led up to this, and I would just want to get this over with."

"Get over with what?" He furrowed his brows.

I sighed and avoided eye contact again, "When you say you don't want anything to do with me, and we end our fairytale relationship right here, right now."

For some reason, this situation seemed to amuse Caleb because he started laughing, full-blown laughter.

I looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to sober up.

"Peyton, if I wanted nothing to do with you, I would have been on the next flight back to Miami; the moment I walked in to see you on the altar. I want you in more ways than one. I want to wake up every morning with you in my arms. I want to spend the rest of my life making you happy since you've already made it your life's mission to do that for the people around you."

This boy clearly wasn't seeing the point, the larger picture of the downside of this relationship of ours.

I fisted my hands at my side, "Don't you think I want that?! Don't you think I want to be happy one day?! If I deserved it, I would fight for it. I can't afford to be selfish right now when everything has gotten worse than it already was.

Even if you want us to work. What happens to the rest of your world tour? I can't just come along when my place is here with these people who would stop at nothing to make sure that my family's legacy is nothing but ashes on the ground. I have so much more to do and worry about. My happiness can never be a priority of its own."

A stubborn tear slid down my cheek, and I didn't bother to wipe it off. Caleb's gaze hardened as he followed the tear from my eye to my cheek and dropped to my lap.

"I can't keep you here and tie you down to the madness which is my future, I can't-"

The rest of my rant was lodged in my throat. Caleb closed the distance around us and placed his lips on mine. He cupped both of my cheeks and tried to deepen the kiss. My hands held onto him and kissed him back with as much passion.

Why does this feel like a goodbye kiss?

At that thought, the waterworks began again, and there was no stopping them. Caleb tasted my tears and withdrew from the kiss, and frowned.

He used his hands to clean my cheeks, "When we walk out of that door, we'll worry about the future then and decide whether or not we get to be happy but, for now, I would like to live in the present and the peace we bring to each other."

He gave me a sincere smile and placed a small kiss on my cheek.

He lay back down on the bed and pulled me to lie on top of him as his hands slid onto my waist to hold me tight to him.

I allowed my hands to run through his hair, and he hummed in approval.

He was right; I slept in peace with my worries fading into darkness for now.